Category: Buildings

The busy holiday season means stressful trips to the post office are back. But the slow, impersonal transactions I’m accustomed to are not what I witnessed at the little-known post office inside the old federal building downtown.

Back-to-school anxiety is ramping up in my home. The kids need new supplies, new sneakers, you name it. But a visit to Bothell’s first schoolhouse, a tiny building where Miss Helen Devoe taught the first class of 23 students in 1886, is helping me keep things in perspective.

Now some of that blight seems to have spread downtown. Buildings are doubling as billboards, with giant ads plastered on their sides like big, ugly Band-Aids.

Take the Oxford Apartments at First Avenue and Stewart Street for example. As if a standalone billboard wasn’t enough, two other ads cover almost every brick in sight. Just around the block I found more “wallscapes” advertising iPhones, boots, cameras and rental car companies.

The Seattle Asian Art Museum location in Volunteer Park may be both a curse and a blessing.

Its splendid art deco building is a perfect match for its setting high on Capitol Hill. But the grounds are so beautiful that you may lose track of time climbing up the Water Tower or peeking through Isamu Noguchi’s “Black Sun” sculpture before you go into the museum.

Some of my happiest childhood memories are of the hours reading and drawing at my neighborhood library in Spain. There I amused myself copying characters from my favorite comic books.

I experienced a bit of that creative feeling a few days ago at the Queen Anne Library. Only, instead of drawing cartoons, I sketched an interesting exhibit of period clothing that included the stiff morning suit you see in my sketch. The attire contrasted with the casual sportswear worn by a man who was browsing his digital reader. (Thank goodness for fashion evolution!)

The garments from the Goodwill Vintage Fashion Collection add to the historic atmosphere of the branch, which is hosting a 100th anniversary party Sunday, from 2 to 4 p.m. During the event, assistant branch manager Jennifer Force will share a scrapbook of memories that patrons are submitting in person and by email to carnegiememories@spl.org.

I had never been to the cozy old library before, but I hope this column can qualify for the memory book.

Sketched Nov. 18, 2013 Talk about an interesting transformation. Back in the early 70s, when people stopped using the city’s historic bathhouses as places to change into their swimwear, the little brick buildings were repurposed as art centers. Currently, Seward Park’s is a ceramic studio, Madrona Beach’s hosts a dance company, and Green…

Sketched Sept. 26, 2013 The days of the downtown Greyhound Bus Terminal are numbered. The entire city block where one of Seattle’s oldest transportation hubs has stood since 1927 is slated for redevelopment next year. Will we miss it? The significance of the building may be lost at first sight. The majority of the original brick…

Sketched May 8, 2013 I drove by this historic gas station in Issaquah on my way to sketch paragliders at Tiger Mountain. You don’t see this kind of old buildings everyday around here, so I couldn’t resist pulling over for a quick 20-minute sketch. According to the Downtown Issaquah Association website, the building…

About Seattle Sketcher

Gabriel Campanario has been living and drawing in Seattle since '06. He's a Seattle Times artist, founder of Urban Sketchers nonprofit, Spaniard, husband and father. You can follow him on Twitter and Facebook.